Waste Not, Want Not

Bali Inaugurates Major Waste Water Treatment Facility

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(8/15/2011)

Jakarta Globe reports that Bali has inaugurated a new water purification facility on Wednesday, August 10, 2011, capable of turning sewage into potable water.

Faced with a growing water crisis that promises to become increasingly acute by 2015, the provincial secretary of the province, Made Jendra, said the new plant would help alleviate island-wide concerns about the coming water crisis.

A joint project between the Central Government, the Denpasar Administration, the Badung regency and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) - the filtration and purification facility will produce 9,000 cubic meters of clean water each day. That translates into 100 liters of clean water per second, a fraction of the estimated 1,500 liters per second needed to overcome the coming water shortage.

Officials point to the ongoing introduction of a sewerage system for South Bali which will make more “raw material” available for increased purification. There are currently 8,647 household connected to the sewerage system producing 22,000 cubic meters of liquid waste each day. The next phase of the sewerage system will almost double both the number of users and the volume of sewerage available for processing.

The just opened purification facility can handle up to 51,000 cubic meters of waste liquid each day.

Built on a 17.5-hectare plot, households will be asked to pay between Rp. 15,000 to Rp. 25,000 per month (US$1.75 to $2.90) in order to be joined to the network. Commercial connections will pay a higher rate.